Vilongo Community

Project Status

Western Kenya WaSH Program

The Water Project’s WaSH program in Western Kenya aims to access, protect, filter, and purify the abundant waters that are available through two seasonal rains, prevalent springs, high water tables, and deep aquifers in the region. Explore water projects in communities, schools, and churches in Western Kenya such as protected springs, rainwater catchment systems, and water wells. This program emphasizes the power of strategic geographical saturation of projects, effective hygiene and sanitation training, and relational networking between NGOs, health workers, local politicians, and educators.

Dug Well and Hand Pump

Hand-dug wells are best suited for clay, sand, gravel and mixed soil ground formations. A large diameter well is dug by hand, and then lined with either bricks or concrete to prevent contamination and collapse of the well. Once a water table is hit, the well is capped and a hand-pump is installed – creating a complete and enclosed water system.

Rehabilitation Project

Rehabilitation is not just fixing a pump - it’s total community re-engagement.

There’s only one thing we can think of that might be worse than not having safe water: having safe water, and then losing it because a project fell into disrepair.

Rehabilitation often proves to be a big challenge, as many wells have sit idle for years and there is typically little information about the specifics of the well. A borehole and dug well rehabilitation involves quite a bit of discovery. First, our teams work to discover as much as they can about the initial project. What materials were used? Was the borehole/hand-dug well properly constructed? Many of these questions can only be answered by diving in, and doing “the work” which makes up a rehabilitation.

Once our teams have found the problem, they find the solution. Then, they reconstruct the well and install a hand pump.

Engagement and training with communities takes into account rehabilitation was needed and alters the program to suit the needs of the community. After all - engaging with this community in the same way which led to the initial, failed project will not bring new results. Our teams work to understand the social and support reasons leading to initial failure, and make those areas a focus of our ongoing engagement with communities.

Local Leadership

Local leadership is a lasting investment

Sustainable water projects only occur through the presence of local leaders. The Water Project identifies, develops, supports, and partners with local organizations who share our vision of reliable and verifiable clean water. Together, we build water programs that include responsible community development, lasting local solutions and ongoing monitoring and resolution.

Community Engagement

Community engagement is at every step of a water project.

Our engagement is rooted in relationship and includes involving the community in implementation and ongoing support, setting expectations for water point management and ongoing costs, etc. All of this happens before a water project is installed.

We use a term called ABCD: “Asset Based Community Development”. This means the community gets a leading seat at the table. Before we seek to bring anything into the community, we first seek to understand and utilize the assets that already exist within the community.

Hygiene and Sanitation Training

Community education and self-discovery about hygiene and sanitation concepts lead to improved health.

Improved health is always the goal. This is why all our projects include hygiene and sanitation training. We utilize many different methods for this training, depending on the community/institution, program and country. Training topics include disease transmission, personal hygiene and cleanliness, proper disposal of waste and proper water storage methods.

Monitoring and Resolution

Water isn’t a pump. Water is a service. And, it must be reliable.

The known benefits of water are ONLY true if water can be counted on, over time. We love celebrating when a project is complete and a community has access to clean, safe water. However, the ongoing service of water - making water reliable - is how we know our true impact.

The Water Project continues to monitor our water projects, and we provide continued support to make sure water service continues for communities.

Past water projects and the communities they serve are just as important to us as anything else we might be doing in the future.

Project Timeline FAQ

Project Status

We’re working hard to make sure your gifts result in a lasting water project for the community it serves. Our engagement with a community begins many months before construction and lasts years after construction. The timeline here is focused on the physical construction of the water project. There is also training and engagement work that has already started.

Water project construction in the developing world is hard work. A lot of things can and do cause delays - which are normal. We attempt to make our best judgment of when construction will be complete, but the circumstances surrounding actual "in the field" conditions are far from our control.

Weather, supply availability, government paperwork, and progress of community involvement are just a few of the variables that can delay (and sometimes speed up) a project's completion.

We will always tell you if anything changes. And, if you get a notice like this – it’s actually further proof your gifts are being carefully used towards a water project that lasts.

Click icons to learn about each feature.

Report Submitted by Elizabeth Chibeu, Field Officer

Elizabeth was born and raised in Kakamega, Kenya. Her expertise is working with communities to keep water flowing at wells. If you met her she’d also share her joy in caring for her husband and two young sons. Elizabeth is determined in her work to reduce the number of people in Western Kenya who lack access to safe drinking water.

Elizabeth has been a Field Officer since 2016, with Sawashi, The Water Project's trusted partner in our Western Kenya WaSH Program.

Community Profile

Community Profile

The average day in Vilongo starts at sunrise. Radios tuned to the news are heard throughout the village. The cows are milked first thing, then the women cook tea and serve breakfast to the family. The men proceed to the farm as women remain to do chores and the children head to school.

This area is highly vegetated with the crops grown by community members. The majority of people are small-scale farmers, growing sugar cane, maize, beans, and vegetables to eat or sell.

Some of the young men work as motorcycle or bicycle taxi drivers, called ‘bodaboda’ locally.

The village is found in a rural area. It is peaceful and most of the buildings are made of a mud block with iron sheet roofing. Few houses are roofed with grass.

Everyone returns home by the evening for dinner and goes to bed to rest for another day.

Collecting water is another daily task. The main water sources in the community are four open, unprotected wells. People lower buckets into the wells that once had pumps to gather water for drinking, bathing, and washing.

We noticed some households had tanks and containers that are used to harvest rainwater, but they were dry due to the lack of rain and many were rusting.

The Vilongo well we’re focusing on has enough water to be used by the community, but the problem is that it is contaminated. People, especially children, are vulnerable to waterborne diseases since there are no safe water sources in the community.

“Water is a very big issue in Sukura Community. Because we lack clean water for drinking, we have been falling sick regularly,” Mr. Joseph Lunani, a farmer, said.

“Our children are malnourished since we can’t even irrigate our land to produce vegetables to supplement our diet.”

Nearly all households have latrines, in the community. But they are often in poor shape. Most of them were dirty and did not have doors. The smell from the latrines is noticeable from a distance. Few homes had handwashing stations.

“Most of us don’t take hygiene seriously because of lack of knowledge,” Mrs. Elizabeth Barasa, a retired teacher, said.

“Children get sick because of something that can be avoided. So, if we are trained about hygienic measures, I am sure that our hygienic attitude will change for better.”

The good news is that something can be done about it.

Here’s what we’re going to do:

Training

Community members will attend hygiene and sanitation training for at least three days. This training will ensure participants have the knowledge they need about healthy practices and their importance. The facilitator plans to use PHAST (Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation), group discussions, handouts, and demonstrations. One of the most important topics we plan to cover is the handling, storage, and treatment of water.

Having a clean water source will be extremely helpful, but it is useless if water gets contaminated by the time it’s consumed. Handwashing will also be a big topic.

Training will also result in the formation of a committee that will oversee operations and maintenance at the well.

Well Rehabilitation

Once we’ve cleaned out the well, we’ll construct a protective well pad and install a new stainless steel AfriDev pump. The community will then have a safe water source that will help make waterborne diseases and the other challenges posed by unclean water a thing of the past.

This project is a part of our shared program with Safe Water and Sustainable Hygiene Initiative (SAWASHI). Our team is pleased to provide the reports for this project (edited for clarity) thanks to the hard work of our friends in Kenya.

Project Updates

08/24/2018: Water Restored in Vilongo Community

Water is flowing again from a hand-dug well in Vilongo, Kenya. People are thrilled about this development that has further unified them as a community. They also attended hygiene and sanitation training, and the water user committee has been strengthened to better take care of their well.

New Knowledge

This well was once used by the community members but ended up failing due to lack of proper maintenance. The Nirrah pump was later stolen, rendering the community completely unable to access water from the well. They had no choice but to go back to unprotected sources.

In the process of carrying out the baseline survey of this project, there was clear evidence that major aspects of water project sustainability were lacking. This included:

– A functional water user committee

– A sense of ownership of the project among the community members

Water user committee training

Our baseline household visits also revealed that people are not practicing good hygiene and sanitation. These facts prompted the hygiene and sanitation department to come up with a two-day training focusing on the formation and training of an effective water user committee and a general training on proper hygiene and sanitation for all community members.

We let the community decide on the best time for training so that we wouldn’t interfere with other important things. Though it was a planting season, men and women came in good numbers. Everybody respectfully listened, contributed opinions, and participated in each activity.

We taught about waterborne diseases and the chain of contamination, as well as many different domains of hygiene: personal, household, water, and food. There were lots of different ways we communicated new ideas, but our favorites had community members working together and discussing new things.

Everyone working together to discern between good, bad, and in-between habits.

One of our activities had people work together to make a season calendar to record the most prevalent illnesses during each of the four seasons. Participants split up into groups to brainstorm these lists, and would present them to the rest of the groups. We then discussed the links between each season and the sicknesses that come with them. Most of these are from contaminated water and poor hygiene habits.

“During the training, I was able to realize some of the practices that were being done wrong in my household that exposed us to diseases. I will see to it that we change our behavior and attitude,” Mr. Joseph Lumani said.

“I can now assure you that our lives will change for the better as a result of the knowledge we have acquired today.”

The only challenge is that when the facilitator was attacked by ants during the middle of the community training. He was forced to remove his shoes and socks to try swatting away the ants before they climbed up his legs. He gained courage and continued to teach despite the painful bites he received from the ants.

Well Rehabilitation

We did not construct a new well pad from its very foundation, rather, we reconstructed the existing pad to seal cracks and any other openings. Community members helped gather sand that would be mixed with the cement, while we provided five bags of cement and a packet of waterproof cement. The waterproof cement was mainly used around the drawing point to prevent water damage. We installed the base of the new stainless steel AfriDev hand-pump so that it would be firmly sealed in the concrete.

The reconstructed pad was left to cure for three days, with the community members taking the responsibility of wetting the cement each morning so that it would dry without cracks.

The pump was installed on the fourth day, but the handle was detached pending our water quality analysis. The handle was reinstalled after the water quality analysis report indicated that the water was safe for drinking. We then flash chlorinated the well.

The community planned for a handing over ceremony so that we could celebrate together. During this ceremony, we also took the opportunity to reiterate some of the main points we taught during training. Some of the neediest families were recipients of new handwashing stations, too.

There was a total of five handwashing stations to distribute.

This well is a symbol of unity for the community. The project is located on the village elder’s land, a place where community members often gather not just to draw water from the well but also to discuss other important issues affecting them.

“I would like to thank The Water Project and the entire staff at SAWASHI for the kind gesture of helping this community have access to clean and safe water once more. I am personally very grateful for this project and training since I have been a victim of waterborne diseases for a long time now,” Mr. Lumani said.

“I now have hope that neither my family nor I will be visiting the hospital because of the same health issues.”

What amazed us is how this community is so welcoming and ready to take responsibility of this project. Most residents in this community are not native to the area, recently having purchased land. They are one big family that cares about each other, regardless of their diverse cultural backgrounds.

“I am grateful for the kindness that The Water Project has shown to this community by bringing us a new pump so that we can draw clean and safe water like we used to before. I can say that the place looks even more beautiful than it was, and we promise that we are easily going to take good care of this new water pump because we have received firsthand training on how to do so,” said Emily Naviswa.

Emily Naviswa

“We will continue to maintain a good relationship with the organization to ensure that this water point serves the community well. Thank you so much The Water Project and SAWASHI.”

06/15/2018: Vilongo Community Project Underway

Dirty water from open sources is making people in Vilongo Community sick. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know this community through the narrative and pictures we’ve posted, and read about this water, sanitation and hygiene project. We look forward to reaching out with more good news!

Project Photos

Project Type

Hand-dug wells are best suited for clay, sand, gravel and mixed soil ground formations. A large diameter well is dug by hand, and then lined with either bricks or concrete to prevent contamination and collapse of the well. Once a water table is hit, the well is capped and a hand-pump is installed – creating a complete and enclosed water system.